Hey everyone!
I’m thinking about restructuring how I use Collections and the Outline. My plan is to keep Collections for the cards I’m actively working on or what’s currently important, and then use the Outline more like a wiki or knowledge base.
Has anyone tried a setup like this? How do you handle your Collections and Outline in your workflow? Any tips or best practices are much appreciated!
Thanks in advance!
I structure my outline using some variant of PARA by Tiago Forte.
There are only three top-level cards in my outline.
Where a card is filed reflects the personal connection to that particular piece of information. Why do I keep it in the first place? The answer is, because it contributes to an area that I am engaged in, committed to, or interested in.
Collections I use to single out unfinished cards, and to group different types of notes, in my case
to impose additional structure (using a color coding) to my database.
My Outline has 3 top-level cards:
Where I grow all my study notes (alternative name for “literature notes”), separated by media type:
Here’s an example of how I structure my study notes and insights from a book:
Where I grow all my insights, by connecting them with related ideas, organised by topic:
Here’s an example of how I structure my insights:
Where I plan and track my creative projects:
Including all the insights that I shared:
The idea is that my Outline structure matches my process; my insights are captured, cultivated, and then (hopefully) used in a creation.
Because Supernotes lets cards have multiple parents, this structure allows me to track where an idea came from, what it’s related to (and where it fits into my knowledge), and how I’ve used it in my shared projects.
Thank you both so much.
I thought about having a Collection called sth. like „action center“ to retrieve all cards out of the outline on those I have to set my current focus …
So I have kind of similar outline structure like you two and go through those categories or have a kind of the given „Task Collection“. I can then tag cards with e.g. #active_task in all outline categories to have a dedicated collection for all ongoing in the specific week.
When the work is done I remove the tag and it stays in the outline as a knowledge base or it goes to the bin.
I can see how an Action centre collection might be useful for keeping track of your current focus topics.
For me, I drive my focus through which media I’m Studying and which Projects I’m creating. i.e. via the input and output of my system.
I agree that highlighting active work is important, for several reasons. This touches not only the way to store and organize your data, but even, maybe a bit more abstract, your workflow of processing information. Once you decided on a specific method, the organization scheme can basically be derived from that.
I have been thinking on this, too. My outline is currently a mess. Thanks for the post.
Really like this approach @JamesT
Just questioning if you have where you put cards more related with time base, like daily notes or weekly notes, events or meetings. What do you think about having 1 top-level that can be called Timeline or Agenda or Calendar?
@freisatz What are the differences between Projects and Commitments?
You mention engaged in, committed to, probably each one related to one of them respectively.
But in practice, what are the differences?
Projects have a specific deadline, and commitments do not? Both are driven by a goal?
Have a look at The PARA Method: The Simple System for Organizing Your Digital Life in Seconds
I use the term Commitments for what Tiago Forte calls Areas of Responsibility.
I know PARA.
Ok, this makes total sense. And Interests are what he calls Resources.
So you don’t Archive things…
I like to think of these areas as spheres of personal connection, as the answer to the “why” of knowledge management. “Archive” is no such thing, but rather a bookkeeping mechanism, like a tag, if you will. It is an artifact that comes from Forte using the somewhat inflexible Evernote. Supernotes does implement archiving internally, so there’s no need for a fourth area.
For my time-based navigation needs, I find Supernotes’ Calendar enough. So I haven’t felt the need to create a time-based structure in my Outline.
I structure my meeting notes by team or by person. As I find it extremely useful to have a “page” of all my notes on a particular topic, in reverse chronological order.
When I write my work journal at the end of the day, I simply click on today’s date in the Calendar to see all today’s notes, and then transfer the highlights into my journal.
What does your collections look like? Or are you just really using outline?
The only non-standard collection that I use is Serendipity, for randomly surfacing my Cultivate insight notes.
Fair. I’ve been reorganizing and I seem to use the outline way more so I was curious.
Ty
